Long-Haul Air Travel is not for the Impatient

If you'd like to get a taste of it at home, take an armchair and place it close to a wall so you won't have too much leg room. Then sit there for 14 hours. In the event you fall asleep, arrange to have someone turn on all the lights and bring you some bad food. Then realize that you still have 5.5 hours to go. Ugh! Although my never-ending flight reminded me at times of the movie Groundhog Day, I enjoyed some spectacular sights from my window seat. Our direct course to Incheon took us on a far northerly route, and I spotted my summer place just before we entered Canadian airspace. "Hellooo, Door Peninsula and Washington Island!" Hours later I caught a red dawn glow over the Arctic ice cap--there's no full sunrise up there at this time of the year. A proper sunrise came at 11:11am over Siberia. What a sight! Nothing but mounds and drifts and piles and mountains of snow under a vivid blue sky. I took countless pictures, but I doubt they will do justice to the austere landscape. (I'm now pretending that I've viewed Antarctica, which has been on my life list for a long time.)